After nearly two years disputing the cost of powers lines, Oro
Valley and Tucson Electric Power find themselves at a
stalemate.

Since 2007, town and utility officials have fought over who
should pay to have a stretch of power lines running along Tangerine
Road put underground.

The improvements could cost as much as $700,000. TEP has offered
to pay $470,000 of the total if the town pays the rest.

“Our position remains unchanged,” TEP spokesman Joe Salkowski
said.

TEP officials said a section of lines, between La Cañada Drive
and La Cholla Boulevard, needs increased capacity or risk an
overload that would leave as many as 2,200 households without
power.

The company will pay for the extra capacity as long as the
improvements remain above ground, possibly by adding another tier
of lines atop the existing ones or installing a set of parallel
lines.

But that’s unacceptable to town leaders.

“The town has been of the position that TEP has to abide by town
ordinances,” Town Manager David Andrews said.

In 1997, the town council adopted an ordinance that mandates all
new power lines along Tangerine go underground.

The ordinance was aimed at preserving mountain and desert views
along the road.

The town council in 2007 rejected a plan that would have allowed
TEP to build the needed power lined above ground.

Town leaders maintain that TEP, like any entity conducting
business in Oro Valley, must abide by existing rules. That means
putting power lines underground and paying 100 percent of the costs
to do so.

That’s tantamount to asking customers in other areas served by
TEP to pay for a cosmetic fix that benefits only Oro Valley
customers, Salkowski said.

“We still don’t believe it’s appropriate to ask the rest of our
customers to subsidize underground lines in other communities,” he
said.

In a November 2007 letter to the Arizona Corporation Commission,
TEP’s lawyer wrote that the town had partnered with the utility
company in the past to pay some costs associated with putting power
lines underground.

In fact, the attorney contends, the town in years past has
allocated $800,000 for such undertakings.

When asked if the utility company would continue to serve
residents in the affected areas, Salkowski said they would.

The town council recently met in a closed session to discuss
with the town attorney a possible course of action. No official
plan has emerged.

Town Attorney Tobin Rosen said that the Arizona Corporation
Commission earlier this year chose not to act on an informal
complaint filed by the town.

The town could file a formal complaint and allow the matter to
course its way through the commission’s arbitration, Rosen
said.

The town likely would not pursue a remedy in the Pima County
Superior Court system, he added.

Salkowski offered two possible remedies.

Residents in the affected areas could work with the company to
create a special improvement district, essentially agreeing to
charge themselves more money to pay for underground power
lines.

The other option, Salkowski said, would be for the town to use a
portion of the 2 percent utility tax to pay for the work.

Oro Valley residents pay the tax on water, electric, gas and
cable bills. Last year, the town collected more than $1 million
from the tax.